


She was always on my mind

by JoyBooth



Category: Pitch (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-28 03:54:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8430814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoyBooth/pseuds/JoyBooth
Summary: Even when they were with other people, she was always there, until she wasn't.





	

She was always on my mind. 

Even when she dated, the mooks barely saw her. I saw her at the gym, at practice, watching game tapes, going over the hitters, riding the bus to games, riding the bus back and of course, she was all I saw when she was on the mound. 

That’s the thing about pitchers and catchers. They have to shut out the world. They have to develop a silent language. They have to trust each other. 

Even after she found out about Amelia, we still spent more waking hours together than apart. It was tough. I was a dick. She was a brat. Neither of us wanted to think about why it even mattered, but we got through it. 

We were gamers and then my knee gave out in the fifth game of the national league finals. She was by my side before anyone else had even figured out what was wrong. When I looked at the game tape later, she was almost a blur. 

They finished the game without me, but they couldn’t scrape out a win. The Cubs were having an amazing season. Padre’s had done well, better than anyone expected, but their season was up. 

Most of the guys checked in with me at the hospital before headed off to whatever they did in the off season. Not Ginny though, the first night she slept in a hospital chair, her head pillowed on her arms by my feet. 

The next day Amelia dragged her away for a shower and, I would guess, a stern talk about the optics of sleeping in her captain’s hospital room. It wasn’t jealousy. Amelia and I had been broken up for a while. Mostly because Ginny’s career was more important to her than any relationship. Which was why she was really concerned about Ginny sitting at my bedside.

Amelia was right of course, even if I had to fight a smile when I woke up to Ginny’s sleep rumpled face. Ginny didn’t need the stigma of being linked romantically to some one like me. She still came by everyday of my hospital stay. She was careful to watch the clock though. She stayed exactly two hours. It was the best two hours of my day, even though she never came at the same time. 

As I worked through PT, she was there. Even when I snapped at her, she would just give me a sad smile, like she expected it. She always came back though. I would apologize and we'd move on. I hated that she expected it. It made me wonder about her life before we met. 

Our nightly phone calls were back in full force. It wasn’t always a long talk. Sometimes it was two sentences, but I liked having someone to talk to, even when there was some random woman sleeping on the other side of the bed, I could always text her goodnight and expect an almost immediate emoji response.  
One night she told me that she had meet a guy at the grocery store. I understood why she was nervous. We had talked about what it was like when the world cared about who you were dating. The media cared about her love life way more than about mine, but I understood. There was always that nagging voice that said the person just wanted a story to sell to TMZ. 

I listened to her tell me about this dude. He seemed alright from what she told me, but I didn’t give an opinion. She didn’t really need it. Ginny got asked out all the time, if she was telling me about this one, it was because she wanted to date him. She just needed to talk herself into it. 

Things never got past texting with grocery boy, but she did date occasionally. Sometimes it was guys that Amelia suggested. Sometimes Evelyn set her up. She met one at the driving range of all places. That guy lasted longer than most, but in the end it fizzled out. Ginny always put her career before everything else. 

I never felt threatened, no matter what those nosy Sanders thought. I wasn’t living like a monk. We were friends. She was always there when I needed her. Even at three in the morning the night of Rachel's wedding. 

When she pulled up to the bar I was already waiting outside. No point in sitting there once they cut you off. She never said anything, just drove to in and out. We ate burgers are watched the waves creep up the beach. Then she drove me home and we never talked about it again. 

Through spring training and the beginning of her second season we always had each other. The reconstructive surgery was tough to come back from, but I did it. She was having her best season yet. When I felt a familiar ache in my other knee I didn’t say anything. 

I pulled away, started dating this young starlet who had come to a few games. I went to three different specialists, but it was always the same. Then I talked to Skip. He agreed to keep it to himself for a while. Duarte played more and more. Ginny asked, but I just shrugged and made a joke about it the starlet and too much bedroom acrobatics. She gave me that sad smile again, and I almost told her the truth, but I wasn’t ready to admit it was over. 

The rift grew. The trade deadline loomed and the whole clubhouse was on edge. Oscar called me into his office. I told him I was retiring at the end of the season, but asked him to keep it to himself if he could. She was waiting outside his office when I walked out. She asked. I denied. She gave me a sad smile, and walked into Oscars office. 

That night she pitched to Duarte for the first 7 innings. When the relief went in, so did I. I kept looking to the dugout, but she had disappeared. We won 3-0 and I decided it was finally time to tell her the truth. I went to knocked on her door. It swung open to reveal an empty room. My heart dropped. I pulled out my phone and hit her number. For only the second time since we met, it went directly to voicemail. I went back to the locker room, but everyone had already cleared out. 

I called Amelia. Eliot answered her phone. He let me know that Ginny had been traded to the Braves. She was already at the airport. I didn't see her again until we played the Braves at the National league finals. 

She stepped up to the plate and I tried to think of something to say. She avoided eye contact. It was torture. In the end, just said good luck. She looked rattled for a minute, but then she hit double and was off running. 

I thought I had missed my chance, so I was shocked to find Ginny waiting outside the locker room. 

“What the hell was that?” She growled. 

“Uh… come on lets not do this here.” I was confused, but I didn't want someone else walking up and interrupting us. We ended up in her old locker room, though it was back to being storage. “Where’d you change?”

“With my team. What the hell was that?”

“What was what?” 

“At the plate, good luck. Were you trying to get in my head or something, because I know we aren't on the same team, but I thought you were better than that.”

I was completely thrown. How could she even think… She’s the one who just left without so much as a goodbye. “Look, missy, I should be really pissed at you. I have every right to be mad at you. We were friends, and then you just left. You didn’t call or write or send carrier pigeons…”

“Carrier pigeons,” she raised an eyebrow at me, but I could tell she was fighting a smile.

“You know what I mean. Bottom line you left, but I still care about you. I still want you to do well.”

She gave me that sad smile again and something in me snapped. 

“What the hell is it, Baker? Why do you always look at me like that? I’m tell you I care about you, and you look at me like you expect it to hurt. What is that?”

Her eyes darted around before so was able to cage whatever emotion she was feeling. “How’s Emma?”

“We broke up, can you answer a damn question?”

“Are you retiring?”

“Uh…” Should have known she would get right to it. 

“Lawson, are you retiring?”

“At the end of the season,” I hate saying it out loud even more than just thinking it. 

“And you didn’t tell me because…”

“I…uh…” I guessed I’d have to go with the truth. “I didn’t want to admit it. If I told you, then it was real. Our partnership had an official expiration date.”

“So instead you lied, pushed me away and wrecked what little time we had left?”

I had never really thought of it like that. “I’m sorry.” 

“I know.” 

There was a knock on the door. “Gin, you in there?” It was Blip. 

“Be there in a minute,” she called through the door then lowered her voice. “I promised I would have dinner with Ev and the boys. I’ll see you around.”

I doubted it, but there was nothing I could say to stop her. She opened the door and I avoided Blip’s eyes. I already knew what he was thinking. I had gotten enough lectures in the last month to last a lifetime. 

That night I was on the couch not really watching ESPN when my phone buzzed. It was her, just goodnight followed by a selfie of her and Blip’s twins with that dog ear filter, but was a olive branch. I quickly shot back a selfie, even adding a bunny eared filter just to make her laugh. And the nothing, I fell asleep waiting for the next ping. 

In the morning, I headed for the gym. We had another game against the Braves that night an I was hopping to catch Ginny at some point. Unfortunately, I only saw her across the field, and when she was throwing 4 straight balls to walk me. That night I got another text good night with a smiley sleeping zzz emoji. I answered with my own turkey leg, french fry, and beer emoji followed by a question mark. The next thing I knew someone was knocking on my door..

"Were you sleeping, Old man? I thought I was promised turkey legs and french fries. Please tell me I didn’t come all this way for nothing.”

I wasn’t quite sure she was really there. “I have roasted chicken and red potatoes, but there wasn’t an emoji for that.”

“As long as there is food I’m happy,” she joked, slipping past me. She was already munching on a drumstick when I made it to the Kitchen. “This is really good. Did you make this?” 

“Uh, yeah, not much, just a spice blend my mom showed me,” I shrugged.

“I missed your cooking. No one on the Brave's cooks for me,” she mumbled, taking another bite. I kept staring not sure what to think.When I didn’t say anything, she continued. “I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately, and someone suggested sex might help.”

“Sex?” I gulped, suddenly my throat was entirely too dry. 

“Yeah, sex, bagging, hooking up, you know.”

“Baker, are you saying you want to have sex?” I couldn’t believe it.

“Yeah, I thought I was being pretty up front about it.”

“But you don’t date ballplayers.”

“Yeah, but when this series is over one of us is done for the season, so I figured, why not?”

“How tired are you?” I asked. 

“God Mike, you sleep with women all the time. Why not me?” She was as close to begging as I had ever seen her, and my heart broke. 

“Because I wasn’t in love with them,” I immediately regretted the words coming out of my mouth when her face dropped.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” 

‘Now or never Lawson,’ I thought to myself. “I’m in love with you, Ginny. I have been for a while, so if we are going to do this, it can’t be just sex, because I love you.”

She slumped onto the bar stool. I started to worry. She wasn’t as easy to read as she had been before. Maybe I should have just been happy with one night. It had taken me all this time to come to terms with my feeling. Maybe she really wasn’t ready yet, but then her hand reach out for mine. 

“Took you long enough,” she smirked, returning to her feet. 

“Are you serious?” 

“Mike, are you going to kiss me or not?” She wrapped her arms around my neck and the rest was history.


End file.
